Oceanside 'Days of Art' fest going strong

Artist Lynn Forbes works on a sculpture of Abraham Lincoln at her booth at Oceanside's Days of Art Festival . The two-day festival is expected to draw thousands of visitors. Photo by James Gregg/U-T San Diego

Artist Lynn Forbes works on a sculpture of Abraham Lincoln at her booth at Oceanside's Days of Art Festival . The two-day festival is expected to draw thousands of visitors. Photo by James Gregg/U-T San Diego

OCEANSIDE  Forget the temporary food court with its tri-tip sandwiches, kettle corn, ice cream and specialty baked potatoes. And forget the 100-plus artists displaying their creations, as well as the senior art show, the student art show and the musicians on two stages.

If for no other reason, go to the free Oceanside Days of Art festival today to see how a hunk of clay becomes Abe Lincoln, and how the big sidewalk chalk mural being drawn on Pier View Way between Nevada and Ditmar streets turns out.

The Oceanside Days of Art is being held for the 21st year this weekend and is expected to draw more than 3,000 people. Organized by the Oceanside Cultural Arts Foundation, it began Saturday and continues from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Ben Swanson, left, Karen Athens, in green, and Phyllis Swanson work on a chalk mural at Oceanside's Days of Art Festival. The two-day festival is expected to draw thousands of visitors. Photo by James Gregg/U-T San Diego

+Read Caption

Ben Swanson, left, Karen Athens, in green, and Phyllis Swanson work on a chalk mural at Oceanside's Days of Art Festival. The two-day festival is expected to draw thousands of visitors. Photo by James Gregg/U-T San Diego

In one booth early Saturday morning, Lynn Forbes, a sculpture artist from Carlsbad, had just begun creating a bust of Lincoln. It wasn’t much more than a big lump of ceramic clay at the time, but she said she was going to work on it for six hours Saturday and six hours Sunday.

“By the end of that time, we’ll have a finished sculpture,” she said.

It’s Forbes’ seventh year at the show.

“I’m creating a portrait of Abraham Lincoln from photos,” she said while continuing to sculpt, not missing a beat. “Usually I use a live model out here during the shows, but I thought I would do something different today to show the skills of being able to transpose two-dimensional information into three-dimensional.”

It’s a wonderful art show, Forbes said. “We’ve got lots and lots of local people and visitors who come out to see examples of handcrafted art and interesting things that can be bought and used as gifts and enjoyed.”

Down between Nevada and Ditmar streets, Phyllis Swanson, a mural artist, was down on her knees on Pier View Way outlining the eyes of a giant sea turtle on the asphalt.

She, along with fellow artist Karen Athens and her son, Ben Swanson, was just starting an elaborate, 12-foot-by-10-foot street mural that will be finished by Sunday afternoon and will then be swept away by street maintenance crews a few hours later.

“It’s a performance art piece, temporary art,” she said. “It’s more for people to get the idea of what goes on in creating art. It lets them see the process. That’s mostly what it’s about.”

Swanson, an Oceanside resident, participated in the festival when it began back in the early 1990s, then took a break before returning last year.

“It’s a really neat festival and it’s grown a lot since we were first here 21 years ago,” she said. “This weekend is going to be great because we have such great weather.”

Also praising the weather — last year was cold and rainy — were Days of Art co-chairs Kimber Petralito and Genevieve Wunder.

“The weather is wonderful, and this is just a wonderful thing for families to do,” Wunder said.